When they returned to the boat they put together a makeshift stretcher to pull Billie up onto the deck.

Sirius climbed up beside him so they made it to the top at the same time. He swung one leg over the railing and with the help of another man at the other end they lifted Billie, stretcher and all on to the deck.

Amanda waited until all but a few men were left in the small boat. One of them gave her the nod to go ahead and so she did.

They were almost finished untying Billie from the stretcher.

“This is why we need a ship healer,” she heard one of the men say.

“We have a healer,” another argued.

“Patchie ain’t a healer, look what happened when Rawls got shot.

“Yeah, he healed him.”

“He gave him cancer.”

“But he didn’t die of blood loss.”

The second man took a playful swat at the first. The first dodged and took a loose throw at the second. Sirius stood up from where he’d been inspecting Billie’s state and the two immediately stood straight and still.

“Get him to his room.” He nodded at Alice who had been standing on the other side of Billie. Alice nodded at Thatch and the two each grabbed one end of the stretcher.

Sirius turned and his eyes fell on Amanda. He opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by a piercing voice.

“There you are! I’ve been looking for you all day. Nobody would tell me anything.” It was the animal handler. The one who’d joined the trip just to look after the pegasus and the other creatures. Amanda had since learned that his name was Michael.

Michael stormed towards them, bumping into Alice on the way. Alice actually growled at him but was prevented from doing anything given the stretcher in his hands. Instead he stared daggers into the back of Michael’s neck. Michael failed to notice.

“We went ashore to gather supplies. I would have told you but you requested not to be disturbed,” Sirius replied calmly.

Sirius towered over Michael but Michael didn’t seem to notice that either. He walked right up to Sirius in a huff. The whole deck was staring now. Some watched out of the corner of their eyes while they worked, while others didn’t even bother pretending. They looked on openly, many obviously hoping for some kind of scuffle. Amanda had quickly gathered that most of them did not like Michael and also that he was a basic luminary, that is he could create light but not fire or heat. In a fight it was very obvious who would win and so the crew longed to see him taught a lesson. Luckily for Michael Sirius was not so quick to use violence to solve problems.

“We are on a time-constrained journey!” Michael exclaimed “What’s worse is I didn’t find out until just now that during the night some of the goods I am charge of were released from their crates!”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed Michael but this ship is a sailboat, that means her speed depends on the wind not the whims of an uninvited guest. As to your ‘goods’ if you just found out about that now then it seems like you weren’t doing a very good job of being in charge of them were you? Your ‘goods’ weren’t released, they got out on their own destroying a bunch of other ‘goods’ on this ship while they were at it. And it just so happens that our trip to that island to day was to remedy the problems your goods have caused.”

“Oh Bullshit! You left me here on this stifling ship to go lie on some sunny beach. Not only did you leave me you took that stowaway, a useless woman." He cocked his head at Amanda. Then he got a mean glint in his eye. With a pointed side glance at her he jabbed at Sirius “Did your crew have fun with that whor-”

Sirius interrupted before Michael could get the word out. “That woman saved the life of one of my crew today so be very careful what you say next.” Sirius stared Michael right in the eye. Amanda could feel almost the whole crew holding their breath. None were bothering to even look like they were working anymore. Some had even taken seats on their half moved crates of bananas. One was casually unwrapping a banana without even looking at the banana.

“My boss will hear about this disrespect when we next make port,” Michael replied. He miraculously seemed surprised that Sirius would challenge him.

Sirius gave a nod. “Good, you do that, see how much your boss cares. If that’s all, I have work to do.” And considering the conversation ended he calmly walked past Michael.

Michael did not consider the conversation ended and in a childish tantrum he spun and threw a fist right into Sirius’ back.

Amanda hadn’t thought it was possible for the air on that deck to become more electrified than it had been.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Sirius stopped and for a moment Michael looked like he might actually have realised for the first time who he was messing with. There for just a moment was the look of a regretful man, one who had surprised himself with his own daring. But then his face hardened and became once more an indignant frown.

Sirius turned.

“You will listen to me!” Michael yelled. “While goods I am in charge of are on this ship then I am…”

Michael had been poking Sirius in the chest at the same time as he was making his point. For a few second Sirius just stood there as if hoping Michael would figure out how foolish he was being. Then, mid sentence he reached down, grabbed the man by his hips and threw him in the most gentle casual fashion, over his shoulder.

“How dare you!” Michael screamed as Sirius carried him calmly off.

Michael pounded his back with his fists but Sirius took no notice.

“Get that food unloaded,” was all he commanded at the crew as he walked inside carrying an angry Michael like a wriggling sack of flour.

Amanda started to scurry after them but one of the men put his arm out to stop her. “You gonna help out?” he asked with a nod towards the crates of bananas that were now filling the deck.

“Oh. Yeah.” She nodded and moved to pick up a box. It seemed to satisfy him.

But the box was heavy and no matter how she tried she could only get it a little way off the ground.

“Here, I’ll give you a hand.” She looked up to see the friendly face of a crewman the others called Neko. Neko had been one of the nicer ones she’d met last night. And because he was so friendly she already knew a lot about him. He was practiced at the accordion and at other types of musical production. He favourite thing to do was to fill a glass and then wet his finger and slide it around the glass so it made music. The real trick of it was that he would use his water elemental powers to manipulate the water in the glass so different frequencies of sound would be produced much to the entertainment of the rest of the crew. He was also one of their best high riggers, being nimble and fast up the ropes.

Between the two of them they carried the bananas down to the hold.

“Are you going to give another performance tonight?” Amanda asked as they moved though the ship with the crate between them. Last night she’d heard him play both the accordion and the glasses. He’d been stopped when one tired crew member had come in and requested silence so he could get some sleep. They had obliged with ending the music but the chatter and slapping of cards on the table which followed had been almost as loud. It must have been enough though for the sleepy individual had not returned with a second request.

“Oh yes. I might start a little earlier if I can. Although I prefer a few drinks first because it loosens my fingers up,” Neko replied with a smile. “But Riki likes his sleep, he always comes in.”

“Do you give one every night?”

He nodded. “Oh, most nights.”

“Always the same instruments?”

“Oh no, sometimes I play others. I have a harmonica and a kalimba.”

“Do you ever play the guitar?”

“Oh, no. Why? Do you play?” he asked.

Amanda nodded.

“Hmm, well sometimes the ports we stop at have open mics and instruments you can borrow. At Wildwater they’ll even let you hire the instrument and then you don’t have to play in front of the others but if you give a performance then you borrow for free and I think it’s better when music is shared. But I know some people are shy.”

“I don’t mind. I used to play drums in a band.”

“Ah, you play drums, well then I do have a drum, perhaps not what you are used to though.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Well then perhaps you can play tonight too?”

“I’d be thrilled to.”

Neko grinned.

“What will the captain do with Michael?” she asked.

Neko shrugged and then glanced back as they started down some stairs. “Oh he’ll probably just put him in the brig to cool off for a bit.”

“I’m not sure he’s going to cool off.”

“Oh, he’ll tire eventually, or he’ll start demanding his cigarettes again. I think if we reduced his rations he’d have less energy to be a pain, but the captain won’t do that. He won’t even let them put him on less rations than the rest of the crew. Bob-bee was saying we shouldn’t feed him at all but I don’t think he means it although he did try to convince him that we don’t eat lunch here. He is a pain though. And those beetles, it is lucky they weren’t on the same floor as the food.”

“Do you think they even eat fruit?” another crewman asked as they laid the box of bananas down next to the others.

Amanda shook her head. “I don’t know.”

The men headed off to dinner once all the boxes were packed away. Amanda told them she’d join them in a bit and went to go and find out what was happening with the beetles. It was there that she found Sirius and Shiv and a couple of others.

“Are they still trapped?” she asked as she came up behind them.

Sirius nodded. “They don’t seem to be attracted to the versot weed though.”

She peered around them. One of the men had thrown in a portion of the versot weed but only a few beetles had scurried near it.

“They definitely haven’t gotten out right?” Alice asked.

“There’s no holes in that room, so unless they eat through wood…” Thatch replied.

Shiv interrupted. “Or unless we have rats. Or hell knows what else in those boxes.” He threw his hands out in a useless motion.

“We got anything else we can try?” Sirius asked.

Thatch and Alice glanced at each other then Thatch asked, “Even if we did what are we going to do once we’ve got them in one spot?”

“The garlic?” Sirius suggested with a questioning glance back at Amanda.

For a moment she thought about offering to burn the beetles for them. Maybe she could and still keep her power a secret. It would have to be subtle though. Either way it was difficult to burn things that she could neither see or feel so until they were out of the flammable wooden crevices she wasn’t going to be much use.

“We still need to lure them out,” Sirius said voicing Amanda’s thoughts.

“Maybe we could try food?” she suggested.

The other three looked at her.

“It would be a waste of food if it didn’t work,” Alice replied.

“We could try little pieces,” Sirius suggested.

The group exchanged looks and there was some nodding.

“Well alright then, what shall we start with?” Sirius asked.

“Meat?” Amanda suggested.

Shiv and Sirius shared a look. Then Sirius shook his head. “We’ve limited supplies of that. There is a bit of cured meat but I think maybe we should try something else first.”

“Fruit?” Amanda suggested.

“What about live bait?” Shiv asked.

“Are you volunteering?” Sirius raised an eyebrow at him.

Shiv’s gaze shifted toward Amanda.

Sirius narrowed his eyes.

Shiv opened his mouth to reply and suddenly a new look came over his face. “I have an idea,” he remarked and then he left without a word.

“Well, yes, very good, share with the group.” Thatch sighed.